The Century Cook Book Part 59

=HONEYCOMB TIMBALE=

(A VERY SIMPLE LUNCHEON DISH)

Boil in salted water large-sized macaroni. When cold cut it into pieces one quarter of an inch long, making rings. b.u.t.ter a plain dome-shaped mold, and cover it with the rings. Fill the mold with minced uncooked chicken, turkey, or veal, mixed with cream sauce. Add three or four eggs to the creamed mince just before putting it into the mold. Unless the eggs are added, it will not have stiffness enough to hold in shape.

Cover the mold with a greased paper. Place it in a pan of hot water, and poach in a slow oven for thirty minutes.

This timbale may also be made of any cooked meat as follows: Put the meat through an "Enterprise" chopper. Make a sauce, using two tablespoonfuls each of b.u.t.ter and flour, a cupful of milk, and a cupful of stock. After the liquid is added to the roux put in a slice of onion and two dried mushrooms, one teaspoonful of salt, and one quarter teaspoonful pepper. Let it cook until a little thickened. Add half the strained sauce to the minced meat. Stir it over the fire until the meat is heated; remove from the fire, add two beaten eggs, and turn it into a a quart timbale mold, which is lined with macaroni in any of the forms given in ill.u.s.trations. Cover the mold with a greased paper. Place it in a pan of hot water, and poach for twenty minutes. Serve the rest of the sauce with the cooked timbale.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HONEYCOMB TIMBALE. (SEE PAGE 302.)]

=A SIMPLE TIMBALE OF HALIBUT=

Take a half pound of uncooked halibut. Cut it into fine pieces, pound it in a mortar, and pa.s.s it through a sieve. Mix a cupful of white bread-crumbs with a half cupful of milk, and stir until it makes a smooth paste; remove it from the fire, add the fish pulp, a half teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of paprica. Then beat in lightly, a little at a time, the whipped whites of five eggs. Fill b.u.t.tered timbale molds with the mixture, and place them in a pan of hot water in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. This will fill a quart mold, or eight individual molds. Serve with a white or with a tomato sauce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FISH TIMBALE DECORATED WITH SLICES OF CUc.u.mBER PICKLE.]

=PASTRY TIMBALE=

Make a paste, using to one pound of flour three quarters of a pound of b.u.t.ter, four yolks, one half teaspoonful of salt, and one and a half cups of water. Work it well, roll it one quarter of an inch thick, cover, and set it aside for one hour. b.u.t.ter a timbale-mold, and line it with the paste. If ornamentation is wanted, cut some noodle paste into fancy forms. Arrange the pieces in some design on the bottom and sides of the mold, and brush them with a little water before putting in the paste. With a cutter or knife stamp out a circle in the paste on the bottom of the mold, but do not remove it. Then with a b.u.t.tered paper cover the whole inside surface of the paste. Fill the center with flour.

Cover the top with b.u.t.tered paper, b.u.t.tered side up; then a layer of paste, and press it to the paste of the sides. Set it aside for half an hour. Bake it in a hot oven for fifty minutes. Unmold, take off the circle which was cut in the paste; remove the paper and flour. Brush the timbale all over, inside and out, with yolk of egg, and place it in the oven to brown. Fill it with salpicon.

=POTATO AND FISH TIMBALE=

(FOR LUNCHEON OR BREAKFAST)

b.u.t.ter a plain mold. Sprinkle it with white bread-crumbs. Fill it with mashed potato which has been seasoned and mixed with two or more egg yolks and some grated cheese. Bake it for forty minutes in a moderate oven. With a pointed knife cut around the top one and a half inches from the edges; lift off the piece, and with a spoon scoop out the potato, leaving a lining one and a half inches thick. Brush the inside with egg, and place it again in the oven to dry and brown. Fill the center with creamed fish; replace the top piece, and fill the cut with potato so as to confine the fish. Place a dish over the top, invert the mold, and let it stand a few minutes. It will then come out of the mold. Serve with a white sauce.

=VOL AU VENT=

Prepare a puff paste (see page 458). Roll it one and a half inches thick. Cut a circle six to six and a half inches in diameter, using as guide a pie-tin or cardboard, if a regular cutter is not at hand. Place it with care on a baking-tin, and cut a smaller circle around the top, one and a half inches from the edge, and two thirds through the paste.

Paint over the top with yolk of egg, and bake it in a hot oven for thirty minutes. Do not open the oven door for the first fifteen minutes.

When baked, lift off the inside circle. Cut out the uncooked paste, paint it over with white of egg, and place it again in the oven to brown. Keep the crust hot until ready to serve. Then fill with salpicon, and replace the cover, or small circle of paste.

=PATTIES=

Prepare patty sh.e.l.ls as directed in puff paste receipt (page 460). Fill them with oysters (see page 134), with lobster (see page 140), or with any salpicon.

=RISSOLES=

Roll puff paste one eighth of an inch thick. Place on it at intervals of three inches from the edge and five inches apart, a teaspoonful of salpicon, or of creamed minced meat. Moisten with a wet brush the paste, and fold it over the b.a.l.l.s of meat. With the finger press the paste together lightly around the meat, inclosing it like a small pie. Then with a patty or biscuit-cutter stamp out the rissoles in shape of half-circles, the ball of meat being on the straight side, and a border of paste an inch or more wide on the rounded side. Egg and bread-crumb them or not, and fry in hot fat. Serve on a folded napkin.

=TO PREPARE SWEETBREADS=

Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for an hour or more. Change the water several times, so that all the blood will be extracted, and leave the sweetbreads very white. Put them on the fire in cold water, and simmer (not boil) for twenty minutes. Then immerse them again in cold water.

This is to parboil and blanch them. Remove all the pipes, strings, and fibers it is possible to do without breaking the sweetbreads to pieces.

When half cold tie each one in a piece of cheese-cloth, drawing it tightly into an oval form, and place them under a light weight until cold. They will then be smooth and a uniform shape, and may be larded with fine lardoons if desired. Use a silver knife for cutting sweetbreads.

=BAKED SWEETBREADS=

Take parboiled larded sweetbreads, and place them on slices of salt pork in a baking-pan. Add enough stock to cover well the pan. Cook them in a hot oven for twenty minutes, basting frequently. Serve with a brown or with a mushroom sauce.

=BRAISED SWEETBREADS=

Place in a baking-pan a bed of vegetables cut in small dice, and a few pieces of salt pork. Lay parboiled sweetbreads on it. Add enough water or stock to cover the vegetables. Close the pan tight, and cook for forty to forty-five minutes. Uncover the pan the last fifteen minutes to let the sweetbreads brown. Paint them with glaze. Strain the liquor from the pan; thicken it with a brown roux, and serve it on the dish under the sweetbreads.

=SAUTeD SWEETBREADS=

Cut the parboiled sweetbreads in slices and saute them in b.u.t.ter; serve with green peas.

=FRIED SWEETBREADS=

Roll the sweetbreads (either whole or cut in slices) in egg and crumbs; let them stand for a time, then fry in hot fat; dress them on a folded napkin and serve with them a Bechamel sauce. They may also be dipped in fritter batter and fried.

=SWEETBREADS a LA POULETTE=

Simmer the sweetbreads for thirty or forty minutes; blanch them, then cut or break them in pieces and place them on a dish. Pour over them a Bechamel or a Poulette sauce. Mushrooms and chopped truffles may be added if desired.

=CHAUDFROID OF SWEETBREADS=

Simmer the sweetbreads until cooked; blanch and tie them in cloth as directed above, or place them in m.u.f.fin-rings under pressure until cold; cover them with a Chaudfroid sauce (see page 281). Place fancy bits of truffle on the top lightly, and when the sauce has set, paint it over with liquid aspic. Arrange them on a socle or on a mound of salad, and serve with them a Mayonnaise sauce and lettuce.

=CALF'S BRAINS=

Soak the brains for an hour in cold water; then simmer in water containing a tablespoonful of vinegar for twenty minutes; an onion, thyme, bay-leaf, salt and peppercorns in the water also will improve the flavor of the brains; place again in cold water to blanch; remove the skin and fibres, and cook by any of the receipts given for sweetbreads.

The boiled brains may also be served with any of the following sauces poured over them: a plain white sauce; a white sauce with chopped mushrooms; a white sauce seasoned with mashed yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a little mustard, tarragon vinegar and chopped parsley, and a tablespoonful of chopped pickle added just before serving; a Vinaigrette sauce; a Hollandaise sauce; a tomato sauce; or a sauce made of browned b.u.t.ter and a dash of vinegar.

=MARINADE OF BRAINS=

Boil the brains; remove the skin and veins; cut them into pieces the size of half an egg; let them stand an hour in a marinade of oil, vinegar, onion, pepper and salt; then wipe and dip them into fritter batter and fry in hot fat. Arrange them on a napkin and serve with tomato sauce.

=CALF'S HEAD a LA VINAIGRETTE=